Floridaguy's photos are not touched up.. ask him about his results.. Also, does your doctor offer fraxel? Doctors are salesmen, and of course they are going to sell the product that they have to offer as they have to make a living.. I can't imagine any doctor telling you that there is another option that is much better offered down the street by another doctor, thanks for stopping by.. Not sure that dermabrasion is the most effective either.. sounds like exoderm is as effective, perhaps more effective than dermabrasion...

Sean..

QUOTE(Keithr23 @ Oct 1 2005, 08:43 PM)

I was told by my dermatologist(who I trust) that lasers are NOT the right method for most people to treat acne scars. They work with lasers adn I have talked a lot about getting things done once my skin is completely free of acne. He told me that the lasers are made and good for taking away real fine wrinkles and spotty skin, but will do little for most acne scars. He also said that chemicals and peels for the most part are not that great for taking the marks away either. The best treatments i have found from researching and from talking to my doc. are dermabrasion and deep micro which does make your skin bleed.

I hope that everyone is seeing good results on here from the lasers, adn have nothing against them at all. I really didnt want to get dermabrasion or the deep micro done, but I guess if that is best that is what I will do.

The only time my dermo does lasers on acne scars is if the patient is of color and not a good candidate for dermabrasion or else they request that they want to have it done eveen after talking about the various treaments.

remember that lasers are the most expensive to do so of course most doctors love to push them off on people. I really would pay almost any amount of money to see my skin smoother, but I wont do a laser if I think it wont do anything for me or could make the situation even worse.

Since looking through various treatmetns adn seeing the before adn after photos I have seen a few people that had real good results and all but one(the person who did TCA) either had dermabrasion or deep micro. If anyone wants to post their before and afters for fraxels that really show an improvement I will run out and get it done. The only pictures I hfave seen were touched up from various websites and doctors that specialized in the practice.

I'm thinking about getting a consulation from a local Dr. who does the fraxel treatment.. Just a quick question to those of you who have had it done or have had a consultation.. What was the price quoted to you for full face and/or spot treatment??

Just wondering what different docs are charging for this treatment as I'm sure it may vary a lot.

Sean..

Hols-

I will have my 5th treatment done on Oct 6th and I have had no fat loss so far! I haven't heard of anyone on this board (at least the ones that post) experiencing fat loss from Fraxel.

Sean:

My doctor quoted my spot treatment at 175.00--however, I am paying only 150.00 per treatment for a golfball sized area (maybe a little bigger than that) on my right cheek.

Did you have bio-alcamid filler procedure done? I thought I remember your name on that board.

Some small bumps caused by that filler are still noticeable and I'm still seeking other procedures to fix them.

Did you have your test procedure of Fraxel Laser done by Dr. Fitzpatrick in San Diego? He seems to be relatively more experienced in using this new technology on acne scared patients, but in the meantime I'm wondering if he is more expensive?

I saw about a dozen of doctors in Los Angles area also offering Fraxel Laser procedure, but I just don't know if any of them is more experienced and trustworthy than Dr. Fitzpatrick? (Your or anyone's comment one this, please)

Hopefully this laser is for real and we're beginning to see some light from the other end of the tunnel.

JennyL

QUOTE(kooky @ Sep 26 2005, 08:39 PM)

You may be right trident. There's a lot of variables involved though in the treatment, and it may be a while before the dust settles and we know how effective the Fraxel is long term for acne scarring. I do trust smilingeyes and Floridaguy, and they seem to be very satisfied with their improvements. So that gives me some hope that this isn't all just the latest and greatest laser hype and hoopla.

Dr. Rokhsar, one of the early investigators of the Fraxel laser (along with Fitzpatrick), is coming out with the most comprehensive study yet (over a 1000 patients) on the efficacy of Fraxel for acne scars. I'd be very interested in what this paper shows, although I would expect some level of bias towards the results. What really intruigues me about the Fraxel (besides the very little downtime) is that at a setting of 20 mJ, the
Fraxel penetrates the dermis down to a depth of 700 micrometers, the deepest of
any treatment or resurfacing procedure out there. No one on acne.org besides myself has ventured pass the 15 mJ level, except for lightgirl, who had 1 treatment at level 17. I had two spot treatments at Level 20, and have seem some softening of the scars, but nothing significant yet.

just wondering how many percentages of improvement do you think you have so far achieved ?

aw I hope you get even greater results after yout 5th fraxel ..

good luck

Marce,

How is it going for you? I think you and I were getting our last Fraxel done around the same time last month. Are you on your 5th one yet? I have a hard time judging percentages, but I would guess on one scar about 40% and the other two scars about 30% improvement. I've seen the most improvement this last month after the 4th treatment with more subtle improvements prior to that. It also helps that the discoloration that happens with scarring is turning to a color more closely matching my normal skin, which I think makes the scars less noticeable as well. I've been told that it isn't actually discoloration, but a shadow that is cast from the indention of the scar so MAYBE because my scars have raised there is less of a shadow, which looks like discoloration?? Does that make any sense or am I just tired!!)

hey light girl what kind of scars do u have? it sounds like we have the same problem ... i also have a very little area that i need to have spot treated .. about 3 or 4 scars to be exact in a little area ..... hope this can work for me as well as it is for you thanks take care

Amnesiac - I think right now it's only offered (as far as I know) in CA and AZ. There are probably other places too but those are the only one's that I'm familiar with. It is still pretty new. http://www.rhytec.com/ is the website. Maybe you can contact them to see where else they might be offering this treatment. I have two more upcoming treatments. I pray for more good results. They are definitely getting more shallow; some smaller scars have blended in with the rest of my skin but I want them all to just disappear (wishful thinking!)

hey light girl what kind of scars do u have? it sounds like we have the same problem ... i also have a very little area that i need to have spot treated .. about 3 or 4 scars to be exact in a little area ..... hope this can work for me as well as it is for you thanks take care

Hi Sirgreg23,

My scars are rolling scars-- I also have about four, but one scar has like two scars put together because one scar was caused by acne and it was lengthened and got wider from my Erbium laser mishap. The other scar is about a 1/2 inch in length (maybe less) and has a shallow scar next to it. I am hoping it works really well for you too-- it shouldn't cost you much for a small area, but a lot of docs won't do spot treatments, which I don't understand except that it has to be a money thing. You also may be able to tolerate higher levels because of such a small area.

Amnesiac - I think right now it's only offered (as far as I know) in CA and AZ. There are probably other places too but those are the only one's that I'm familiar with. It is still pretty new. http://www.rhytec.com/ is the website. Maybe you can contact them to see where else they might be offering this treatment. I have two more upcoming treatments. I pray for more good results. They are definitely getting more shallow; some smaller scars have blended in with the rest of my skin but I want them all to just disappear (wishful thinking!)

[/quote]

Electroscars,

Glad to hear things are turning out well for you with your treatments. Yea!!)

thanks lightgirl yes hopefully i can get this done fairly cheap hopefully not anymore than 200-300 per treatment... i told the doctor im goin to go see (Dr. Apostolakis) in austin that i just wanted a spot treated and asked him for a rough estimate but he said he couldnt even quote me anything till i paid 50 dollars to go see him go figure huh.. but he also said hes read up on tca cross and would be willing to try that as an option as well... luckily i live in central texas cause from what i hear there are a lot of good derms down here in the south .. where ever dr y ends up will still be within driving distance incase i need to go see him for punch floats possibly which might not be a bad idea since id only need like 3-4 done . but anyways ill stop babling now .... thanks alot lightgirl i hope everything goes well for u =)

Hey Jenny,
Yes I did have bioalcamid over a year ago and still have a few small lumps too. Have you done anything to remove them?

I had my Fraxels with a local doctor, not with Fitzpatrick. Dr. Fitzpatrick and Dr. Rokshar in NY probably have the most experience with the Fraxel. I don't know what Dr. Fitzpatrick charges, but Dr. Rokshar charges $1200/treatment, which is almost twice as much as what my doctor charges.

I believe there is some degree of treatment success correlated to operator skill, but probably not much. I think there needs to be some more research on what the optimal settings, passes, and # of treatments/frequency for acne scarring is. Or if it really makes much of a difference at all. I have also read that the laser needs to be calibrated each time for the patient and that this is not always done by doctors. It was one explanation for the variance in results, but I don't know how much water that holds. It's just something I read on another message board.

Reliant's done an excellent job of marketing the laser and it's getting good press, but that's what makes me a little hesitant to jump on this bandwagon. I think I'll probably wait this one on the sidelines and see how other patients do next year before I do any full-face Fraxel treatments.

Good luck to you!

QUOTE(JennyL @ Oct 2 2005, 09:21 PM)

Hi, kooky,

Did you have bio-alcamid filler procedure done? I thought I remember your name on that board.

Some small bumps caused by that filler are still noticeable and I'm still seeking other procedures to fix them.

Did you have your test procedure of Fraxel Laser done by Dr. Fitzpatrick in San Diego? He seems to be relatively more experienced in using this new technology on acne scared patients, but in the meantime I'm wondering if he is more expensive?

I saw about a dozen of doctors in Los Angles area also offering Fraxel Laser procedure, but I just don't know if any of them is more experienced and trustworthy than Dr. Fitzpatrick? (Your or anyone's comment one this, please)

Hopefully this laser is for real and we're beginning to see some light from the other end of the tunnel.

JennyL

Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man how to use the internet, and he'll leave you alone for at least a couple of weeks.

I would say may deeper scars are at 35% improved and the shallow and moderate scarring is much better (anywhere from GONE to over 50% Improvement) I am going to do a touch of with Restylane later Today.
I am going to see how much improvement I can get from the new TOUCH up syringe (.5cc) Last time I did this was almost 2 years ago and I had a full 1cc
syringe. I can say already there were a lot of scars treated last time that are now gone or improved to the point that I will not bother having them treated this time (all this due to my 5 Fraxel Treatments over the past year)
I am sure I will only need the touch up amount to get a great result. I am doing this to get me through the end of the year. I will get back on the Fraxel band wagen jan/feb 2006. I will report on the Filler improvement tommorow (one good thing about fillers is you get a quick result LOL) Cost of the touch up syringe is only $300 I am confident the combined improvements will be quite dramtic in the areas treated with both Fraxel and the filler. I am hoping to get a few months boost in improvements to my worst scars and hope it lasts till the end of the year. That would be pretty major if it does LOL.

QUOTE(marce @ Oct 3 2005, 01:13 AM)

Hi light girl .. thanks for your update..

just wondering how many percentages of improvement do you think you have so far achieved ?

i scheduled a consultation for fraxel =) found a place that has free consultations im pretty excited now but i dont wana get my hopes up =-/ i was impressed at how fast i could go in .... could go thursday if i wanted to but i haveto work =/ and the best news is its only about a 45 min drive from my house =) sorry for being soo excited but hope gets me through the day

i scheduled a consultation for fraxel =) found a place that has free consultations im pretty excited now but i dont wana get my hopes up =-/ i was impressed at how fast i could go in .... could go thursday if i wanted to but i haveto work =/ and the best news is its only about a 45 min drive from my house =) sorry for being soo excited but hope gets me through the day

Trust me, I understand--we can all relate to that. I am excited for you to start your treatments so please keep us posted and be patient with the results because it can feel like a slow proces sometimes!

One question, and this may have already been answered in a previous post.. Does you doctor say your results are typical with his other patients that he's treating with the same method? Just wondering if your results are exceptional or if they are common.. I don't see a lot of other people getting the results you seem to be getting so just thought I'd see if you had discussed this with your doctor or if he had mentioned...